Key-Note Speaker: MarketingGeorgia has over 20 years experience as a business manager and consumer direct marketing professional with the majority of her experience residing in the wine category. She has a strong record of success building and managing consumer direct marketing businesses in the USA and Australia, having lived and worked in both markets. Georgia launched her consulting business in Australia in 2008, assisting wineries to understand the direct to consumer opportunity, with a focus on utilising disciplined direct marketing techniques in both the bricks and mortar and digital landscapes. She also advises on technology platforms, marketing / communication strategies and analytics to drive business performance, and regularly speaks at both direct marketing and winery seminars on these topics.

Jose Antonio AmerigoKey-Note Speaker: Oleocanthal & HealthDr Amerigo is a retired physician and renowned olive researcher who established the Oleocanthal International Society (OIS) in Spain. He has dedicated his time to promoting preventative medicine through nutrition as the best way to “cure” disease. He actively encourages the use of high phenolic olive products in our daily diet and will be talking about the specific health benefits of the health-promoting phenolic compound oleocanthal as well as other healthy compounds found in EVOO.

Andrew LaingAndrew spent his first 40 or so working years in “Big Oil” mainly in Finance and Planning roles in Europe, Australia and Hong Kong. In 2003 Andrew and his wife Irene retired to Melbourne and began a second career in olive oil, based around a 1,000 tree un-irrigated and organic certified grove in the Strathbogie Ranges. They have been heavily involved with GSOGA – the regional olive growers association, and more recently Andrew has joined the AOA Board as the representative of Olives Victoria. He has a strong interest in helping smaller boutique growers to find ways of competing successfully alongside bigger groves.

Barbara HallBarbara is a plant pathologist with over 35 years experience in diseases of Horticultural crops, and currently works as a Senior Research Scientist within the Horticulture Pathology Group of the South Australian Research and Development Institute. Barbara manages the Horticultural diagnostic service and the Quarantine Unit, and coordinates and supervises research projects. Her areas of expertise include management and control of fungal diseases; resistance detection in fungicides; diagnosis of plant diseases; and extending information on disease management to growers.

Chris MercerChris has been Vice President of the AOA since 2014 and a Board Director representing Olives WA, since 2012. Prior to planting olives in Dongara, WA, Chris worked in Hong Kong and China for many years, in a variety of roles revolving around the manufacture of printers and printer components. Taking advantage of this background, Chris proposed “The Olive Route” program as a way for Australian producers of high quality EVOO to get better prices in the developing Chinese online market. This resulted in the OL14003 project: “Essential Work to Facilitate Increased Exports to China, Removing Roadblocks and Enhancing Competitive Advantage” which was financed by the olive industry levy matched with Commonwealth funds and administrated by Hort Innovation. This project has been completed and Chris has now founded a company with the intention of applying the research outcomes in the commercial environment.

Ed VercoeEd has been involved in the industry for over 10 years and has experience in olive growing, and contract pruning and harvesting. Ed also works in partnership with Domenic Scarfo at Diana Olives and has a packaging company called Oleapac. Ed’s farm is located on the Fleurieu Peninsula near Myponga. Ed produces olive oil under the Cicada brand, as well as table olives for an ever-growing market.

Jamie AytonJamie heads the NSW Department of Primary Industries edible oil research program in Wagga Wagga. He joined NSW DPI in 1995 and has participated in and managed research on various olive projects in that time. Jamie studied and obtained his Master of Science Degree from the University of Western Sydney in 2006. He is a part of the laboratory team which has successfully held accreditation from the International Olive Oil Council for the last 15 years, and is involved with the Australian Olive Oil Sensory Panel in Wagga Wagga.

Jane WyattJane commenced as the General Manager Sales & Marketing for Boundary Bend in February 2016. Previous to this, Jane worked for Group Danone domestically and internationally (Turkey) in roles of Marketing Director for infant formula, and Commercial Director across yoghurts. Majority of her career has focused on FMCG across categories of coffee with Douwe Egberts, desserts & bakery with Sara Lee and paper based products with Kimberly Clark. With a high passion for Health marketing, the opportunity to be associated with Australian Extra Virgin Olive Oil is an exciting new chapter.

Jim KellyJim has more than 30 years experience in primary production and agribusiness. He is recognised as a leader in the beneficial use, compliance and approvals of waste streams and associated projects from the water and mining industries. He has over 35 years experience in agricultural production systems including grazing, broadacre grains, horticultural and protected cropping systems. Jim has undertaken many roles in agriculture including: owner operator, researcher, agronomist, agripolitics, crop feasibility studies and educator.

Jim RowntreeJim has been involved with the Australian olive industry since 1996 and is experienced in all aspects of olive growing from design to production. Jim is the processing plant manager at SA’s largest processing facility at Keith. He also runs his own 80 hectare super high density and traditional density olive groves near Coonalpyn SA. Jim was directly involved in the design and installation of over 500 hectares of olives in the Coonalpyn region SA since 1998. He is a member of the AOA Chemical Permits Committee, has judged at the Olives SA EVOO Competition and is also currently the Project Manager for a large foreign owned olive orchard in SA.

Kevin WhithearKevin runs a small olive grove (Mt Bernard Olives) with his wife at Avenel, Victoria that they established in 2003. He has been a member of the AOA since 2003, and is President of the Goulburn Strathbogie Olive Growers Association. Kevin is involved in all facets of the production of olive oil from grove management through to harvest, processing, storage, packaging, and marketing. He was a member of the former Olive Industry Advisory Committee and is currently a member of the Strategic Investment Advisory Panel of Horticulture Innovation Australia and an Honorary Professor in the Faculty of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

Leandro RavettiLeandro graduated as an Agricultural Engineer in Argentina. He worked for the National Institute of Agricultural Technology in olive production research from 1995 until he moved to Australia in 2001. In Australia, Leandro leads the Modern Olives technical team, which provides horticultural and olive specific technical advice to most of the largest olive groves and olive oil processing plants in the country.

Luigi PagliaLuigi is the Assistant Director of Plant Import Operations, in the Commonwealth Department of Agriculture, Water Resources. Luigi has over 15 years experience in the department, primarily working in quarantine, and more recently working in managing imports of plants and seeds into Australia. Luigi recently travelled to Italy as part of an international workshop held for the bacterial plant pathogen Xylella fastidiosa that is devastating olive groves in southern Italy. Luigi will be talking about this disease, what he saw in Italy and what Australia is doing to strengthen our quarantine measures against this disease.

Marcelo BerlandaMarcelo is an olive specialist and consultant to olive growers, producers, processors and agribusiness managers. He has worked for the largest olive plantations in Australia and has been involved in providing practical and cost effective solutions in horticulture. He offers expert technical consultation and project management to help you minimise costs and maximise profits through effective grove practices and production techniques. He also has extensive experience in olive oil processing. Marcelo has held senior positions within the olive industry. He has also researched the olive growing regions of Australia, Argentina, Chile, California, Arizona, Greece, Italy, New Zealand, and Spain.

Michael ThomsettMichael is the new President of Olives NSW. He is a qualified horticulturist with over 30 years experience in production horticulture with the last 17 years being primarily focused on the Olive industry. He has practical experience in managing large olive groves and has also consulted to many smaller groves as well.

Peter BriscoePeter has been involved in the agriculture/horticulture industry for the past 8 years. After completing his apprenticeship in 2008, he worked for horticultural import and distribution company Fertool. His first experiences with biological farming using Bactivate occurred in 2008; from there he was trained by leading experts in advanced biology and soil systems. Over this time he assisted Bactigro to develop the Bactivate Program, and in 2011 became GM for Bioactive Soil Solutions. Since then he has visited farms across Australia, developing biological farming plans for customers.

Richard GawelRichard is presiding judge of many of Australia’s major olive oil shows, including The Australian National Competition. He also trained and headed Australia’s first extra virgin classification tasting panel recognised by the IOC and is a past recipient of the AOA’s Service to Industry Award. Richard is the author of the “olive oil tasting wheel” and consults for a number of Australian olive oil companies.

Scott WilliamsScott has worked in agriculture for 27 years, starting as a veterinarian working with sheep and beef cattle graziers on a whole-farm basis (including herd health, genetics, management practices and financial analysis). He spent ten years in R&D management within Australian Wool Innovation before moving into a freelance role and now works with a range of RDCs in animal and plant industries, including Hort. Innovation, assisting with strategic planning, facilitation, corporate governance, business design and evaluation. Other clients include industry peak bodies, government agencies, farmer innovation groups and private companies. Scott has also completed projects in Laos, Chile and Armenia.

Theo SimosTheo holds formal qualifications on Food Technology, Management and Marketing with a Master’s Degree in Business. He is currently a Research Associate for Global Food Studies involved in Value Chain Analysis and Market Research projects. His focus as part of this multidisciplinary team is in the Pacific, specially Fiji and Papua New Guinea. He also has a strong understanding of food and beverage, retail, foodservice and traditional market channels in markets across SE Asia, the Middle East, India, and Pacific.

Tim SmithTim joined Boundary Bend Limited (BBL) in 2004 and manages the company’s branded, bulk and private label sales and marketing activities. Prior to joining BBL, Tim was the Food and Beverage Business Development Manager at Austrade in New York and worked with many of Australia’s leading food and wine companies exporting to the USA and Canada. Prior to joining Austrade, Tim completed a graduate cadetship with Elders before working in Elders International as an export trader and supply management coordinator.

Will GordonBorn and raised on farms in South Western Victoria, Will has been involved in agriculture since his earliest years. He studied Agricultural Science and a Masters of Agribusiness at the University of Melbourne before pursuing a career in the grains industry and now horticulture. Will is currently Relationship Management Lead at Horticulture Innovation Australia Ltd where he manages a team of relationship managers and also has responsibility for stakeholder engagement across the vegetable, olive and dried fruit industry R&D and marketing programs.